OF GODS WORKS
LXIII.
All the works of God are unsearchable and unspeakable, no human sense can find
them out; faith only takes hold of them without human power or aid. No mortal
creature can comprehend God in his majesty, and therefore did he come before us
in the simplest manner, and was made man, ay, sin, death, and
weakness.
In all things, in the least
creatures, and their members, God's almighty power and wonderful works clearly
shine. For what man, how powerful, wise, and holy soever, can make out of one
fig, a fig-tree, or another fig? or, out of one cherry-stone, a cherry, or a
cherry-tree? or what man can know how God creates and preserves all things, and
makes them grow.
Neither can we conceive how the eye sees, or how
intelligible words are spoken plainly, when only the tongue moves and stirs in
the mouth; all which are natural things, daily seen and acted. How then should
we be able to comprehend or understand the secret counsels of God's majesty, or
search them out with our human sense, reason, or understanding. Should we then
admire our own wisdom? I, for my part, admit myself a fool, and yield myself
captive.
LXIV.
In the beginning, God made Adam out of a piece of
clay, and Eve out of Adam's rib: he blessed them and said: "Be fruitful and
increase" - words that will stand and remain powerful to the world's end.
Though many people die daily, yet others are ever being born, as David says in
his Psalm: "Thou sufferest men to die and go away like a shadow, and sayest,
Come again ye children of men." These and other things which he daily creates,
the ungodly blind world see not, nor acknowledge for God's wonders, but think
all is done by chance or haphazard, whereas, the godly, wheresoever they cast
their eyes, beholding heaven and earth, the air and water, see and acknowledge
all for God's wonders; and, full of astonishment and delight, laud the Creator,
knowing that God is well pleased therewith.
LXV.
For the blind children of the world the articles
of faith are too high. That three persons are one only God; that the true Son
of God was made man; that in Christ are two natures, divine and human, etc.,
all this offends them, as fiction and fable. For just as unlikely as it is to
say, a man and a stone are one person, so it is unlikely to human sense and
reason that God was made man, or that divine and human natures, united in
Christ, are one person. St Paul showed his understanding of this matter, though
he took not hold of all, in Colossians: "In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily." Also: "In him lies hid all treasure of wisdom and
knowledge."
LXVI.
If a man ask, Why God permits that men be
hardened, and fall into everlasting perdition? let him ask again: Why God did
not spare his only Son, but gave him for us all, to die the ignominious death
of the cross, a more certain sign of his love towards us poor people, than of
his wrath against us. Such questions cannot be better solved and answered than
by converse questions. True, the malicious devil deceived and seduced Adam; but
we ought to consider that, soon after the fall, Adam received the promise of
the woman's seed that should crush the serpent's head, and should bless the
people on earth. Therefore, we must acknowledge that the goodness and mercy of
the Father, who sent his Son to be our Saviour, is immeasurably great towards
the wicked ungovernable world. Let, therefore, his good will be acceptable unto
thee, oh, man, and speculate not with thy devilish queries, thy whys and thy
wherefores, touching God's words and works. For God, who is creator of all
creatures, and orders all things according to his unsearchable will and wisdom,
is not pleased with such questioning.
Why God sometimes, out of his divine counsels,
wonderfully wise, unsearchable to human reason and understanding, has mercy on
this man, and hardens that, it beseems not us to inquire. We should know,
undoubtingly, that he does nothing without certain cause and counsel. Truly, if
God were to give an account to every one of his works and actions, he were but
a poor, simple God.
Our Saviour said to Peter, "What I do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Hereafter, then, we shall know
how graciously our loving God and Father has been affected unto us. In the
meantime, though misfortune, misery, and trouble be upon us, we must have this
sure confidence in him, that he will not suffer us to be destroyed either in
body or soul, but will so deal with us, that all things, be they good or evil,
shall redound to our advantage.
LXVII.
When one asked, where God was before heaven was
created? St Augustine answered: He was in himself. When another asked me the
same question, I said: He was building hell for such idle, presumptuous,
fluttering and inquisitive spirits as you. After he had created all things, he
was everywhere, and yet he was nowhere, for I cannot take hold of him without
the Word. But he will be found there where he has engaged to be. The Jews found
him at Jerusalem by the throne of grace, (Exod.xxv.) We find him in the Word
and faith, in baptism and the sacraments; but in his majesty, he is nowhere to
be found.
It was a special grace when God bound himself to
a certain place where he would be found, namely, in that place where the
tabernacle was, towards which they prayed; as first, in Shilo and Sichem,
afterwards at Gibeon, and lastly at Jerusalem, in the temple.
The Greeks and heathens in after times imitated
this, and build temples for their idols in certain places, as at Ephesus for
Diana, at Delphos for Apollo, etc. For, where God build a church there the
devil would also build a chapel. They imitated the Jews also in this, namely,
that as the Most Holiest was dark, and had no light, even so and after the same
manner, did they make their shrines dark where the devil made answer. Thus is
the devil ever God's ape.
LXVIII.
God is upright,faithful, and true, as he has
shown, not only in his promises, through Christ, of forgiveness of sins, and
deliverance from everlasting death, but also, in that he has laid before us, in
the Scriptures, many gracious and comforting examples of great and holy saints
who of God were highly enlightened and favored, and who, notwithstanding, fell
into great and heavy sins.
Adam, by his disobedience, hereditarily conveyed
sin and death upon all his posterity. Aaron brought a great sin upon Israel,
insomuch that God would have destroyed her. David also fell very heavily. Job
and Jeremiah cursed the day in which they were born. Jonas was sorely vexed
because Nineveh was not destroyed. Peter denied, Paul persecuted Christ.
These, and such like innumerable examples, does
Holy Writ relate to us; not that we should live securely, and sin, relying upon
the mercy of God, but that, when we feel his anger, "which will surely follow
upon the sins," we should not despair, but remember these comfortable examples,
and thence conclude, that, as God was merciful unto them, so likewise he will
be gracious unto us, out of his mere goodness and mercy shown in Christ, and
will not impute our sins unto us.
We may also see by such examples of great holy
men falling so grievously, what a wicked, crafty, and envious spirit the devil
is, a very prince and good of the world.
These high, divine people, who committed such
heavy sins, fell, through God's counsel and permission, to the end they should
not be proud or boast themselves of their gifts and qualities, but should
rather fear. For, when David had slain Uriah, had taken from him his wife, and
thereby given cause to God's enemies to blaspheme, he could not boast he had
governed well, or shown goodness; but he said: "I have sinned against the
Lord," and with tears prayed for mercy. Job also acknowledgingly says: "I have
spoken foolishly, and therefore do I accuse myself, and repent."
LXIX.
When God contemplates some great work, he begins
it by the hand of some poor, weak, human creature, to whom he afterwards gives
aid, so that the enemies who seek to obstruct it, are overcome. As when he
delivered the children of Israel out of the long, wearisome, and heavy
captivity in Egypt, and led them into the land of promise, he called Moses, to
whom he afterwards gave his brother Aaron as an assistant. And though Pharaoh
at first set himself hard against them, and plagued the people worse than
before, yet he was forced in the end to let Israel go. And when he hunted after
them with all his host, the Lord drowned Pharaoh with all his power in the Red
Sea, and so delivered his people.
Again, in the time of Eli the priest, when
matters stood very evil in Israel, the Philistines pressing hard upon them, and
taking away the Ark of God into their land, and when Eli, in great sorrow of
heart, fell backwards from his chair and broke his neck, and it seemed as if
Israel were utterly undone, God raised up Samuel the prophet, and through him
restored Israel, and the Philistines were overthrown.
Afterwards, when Saul was sore pressed by the
Philistines, so that for anguish of heart he despaired and thrust himself
through, three of his sons and many people dying with him, every man thought
that now there was an end of Israel. But shortly after, when David was chosen
king over all Israel, then came the golden time. For David, the chosen of God,
not only saved Israel out of the enemies hands, but also forced to obedience
all kings and people that set themselves against him, and helped the kingdom up
again in such manner, that in his and Solomon's time it was in full flourish,
power, and glory.
Even so, when Judah was carried captive to
Babylon, then God selected the prophets Ezekiel, Haggai, and Zachariah, who
comforted men in their distress and captivity; making not only promise of their
return into the land of Judah, but also that Christ should come in his due
time.
Hence we may see that God never forsakes his
people, nor even the wicked; though, by reason of their sins, he suffer them a
long time to be severely punished and plagued. As also, in this our time, he
has graciously delivered us from the long, wearisome, heavy, and horrible
captivity of the wicked pope. God of his mercy grant we may thankfully
acknowledge this.
LXX.
God could be rich readily enough, if he were more
provident, and denied us the use of his creatures; let him, for ever so short a
while, keep back the sun, so that it shine not, or lock up air, water, or fire,
ah! how willingly would we give all our wealth to have the use of these
creatures again.
But seeing God so liberally heaps his gifts upon
us, we claim them as of right; let him deny them if he dare. The unspeakable
multitude of his benefits obscures the faith of believers, and much more so,
that of the ungodly.
LXXI.
When God wills to punish a people or a kingdom,
he takes away from it the good and godly teachers and preachers, and bereaves
it of wise, godly, and honest rulers and counsellors, and of brave, upright and
experienced soldiers, and of other good men. Then are the common people secure
and merry; they go on in all willfulness, they care no longer for the truth and
for the divine doctrine; nay, they despise it, and fall into blindness; they
have no fear or honesty; they give way to all manner of shameful sins, whence
arises a wild, dissolute, and devilish kind of living, as that we now, alas!
see and are too well cognizant of, and which cannot long endure. I fear the axe
is laid to the root of the tree, soon to cut it down. God of his infinite mercy
take us graciously away, that we may not be present at such calamities.
LXXII.
God gives us sun and moon and stars, fire and
water, air and earth, all creatures, body and soul, all manner of maintenance,
fruits, grain, corn, wine, whatever is good for the preservation and comfort of
this temporal life; moreover he gives unto us his all-saving Word, yea,
himself.
Yet what gets he thereby? Truly, nothing, but
that he is wickedly blasphemed, and that his only Son is condemned and
crucified, his servants plagued, banished, persecuted, and slain. Such a godly
child is the world; woe be to it.
LXXIII.
God very wonderfully entrusts his highest office
to preachers that are themselves poor sinners who, while teaching it, very
weakly follow it. Thus goes it ever with God's power in our weakness; for when
he is weakest in us, then is he strongest.
LXXIV.
How should God deal with us? Good days we cannot
bear, evil we cannot endure. Gives he riches unto us? then are we proud, so
that no man can live by us in peace; nay, we will be carried upon heads and
shoulders, and will be adored as gods. Gives he poverty unto us? then are we
dismayed, impatient, and murmur against him. Therefore, nothing were better for
us, than forthwith to be covered over with the shovel.
LXXV.
"Since God," said some one, "Knew that man would
not continue in the state of innocence, why did he create him at all?" Dr.
Luther laughed, and replied: The Lord, all-powerful and magnificent, saw that
he should need in his house, sewers and cesspools; be assured he knows quite
well what he is about. Let us keep clear of these abstract questions, and
consider the will of God such as it has been revealed unto us.
LXXVI.
Dr. Henning asked: "Is reason to hold no
authority at all with Christians, since it is to be set aside in matters of
faith?" The Doctor replied: Before faith and the knowledge of God, reason is
mere darkness; but in the hands of those who believe, `tis an excellent
instrument. All facilities and gifts are pernicious, exercised by the impious;
but most salutary when possessed by godly persons.
LXXVII.
God deals strangely with his saints, contrary to
all human wisdom and understanding, to the end, that those who fear God and are
good Christians, may learn to depend on invisible things, and through
mortification may be made alive again; for God's Word is a light that shines in
a dark place, as all examples of faith show. Esau was accursed, yet it went
well with him; he was lord in the land, and priest in the church; but Jacob had
to fly, and dwell in poverty, in another country.
God deals with godly Christians much as with the
ungodly, yea, and sometimes far worse. He deals with them even as a
house-father with a son and a servant; he whips and beats the son much more and
oftener than the servant, yet, nevertheless, he gathers for the son a treasure
to inherit, while a stubborn and a disobedient servant he beats not with the
rod, but thrusts out of doors, and gives him nothing of the inheritance.
LXXVIII.
God is a good and gracious Lord; he will be held
for God only and alone, according to the first commandment: "Thou shalt have
none other Gods but me." He desires nothing of us, no taxes, subsidies, money,
or goods; he only requires that he may be our God and Father, and therefore he
bestows upon us, richly, with an overflowing cup, all manner of spiritual and
temporal gifts; but we look not so much as once towards him, nor will have him
to be our God.
LXXIX.
God is not an angry God; if he were so, we were
all utterly lost and undone. God does not willingly strike mankind, except, as
a just God, he be constrained thereunto; but, having no pleasure in
unrighteousness and ungodliness, he must therefore suffer the punishment to go
on. As I sometimes look through the fingers, when the tutor whips my son John,
so it is with God; when we are unthankful and disobedient to his Word, and
commandments, he suffers us, through the devil, to be soundly lashed with
pestilence, famine, and such like whips; not that he is our enemy, and to
destroy us, but that through such scourgings, he may call us to repentance and
amendment, and so allure us to seek him, run to him, and call upon him for
help. Of this we have a fine example in the book of Judges, where the angel, in
God's person, speaks thus: "I have stricken you so often, and ye are nothing
the better for it;" and the people of Israel said: "Save thou us but now; we
have sinned and done amiss: punish thou us, O Lord and do with us what thou
wilt, only save us now," etc. Whereupon he struck not all the people to death.
In like manner did David, when he had sinned (in causing the people to be
numbered, for which God punished the people with pestilence, so that 70,000
died), humble himself, saying: "Beloved, Lord, I have sinned, I have done this
misdeed, and have deserved this punishment: What have these sheep done? Let thy
hand be upon me, and upon my father's house," etc. Then the Lord "repented him
of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough,
stay thy hand."
He that can humble himself earnestly before God
in Christ, has already won; otherwise, the Lord God would lose his deity, whose
own work it is, that he have mercy on the poor and sorrowful, and spare them
that humble themselves before him. Were it not so, no human creature would come
unto him, or call upon him; no man would be heard, no man saved, nor thank him:
"For in hell no man praiseth thee," says the Psalm. The devil can affright,
murder, and steal; but God revives and comforts.
This little word, God, is, in the Scripture, a
word with manifold significations, and is oftentimes understood of a thing
after the nature of its operation and essence: as the devil is called a god;
namely, a god of sin, of death, of despair, and damnation.
We must make due difference between this god and
the upright and true God, who is a God of life, comfort, salvation,
justification, and all goodness; for there are many words that bear no certain
meanings, and equivocation is always the mother of error.
LXXX.
The wicked and ungodly enjoy the most part of
God's creatures; the tyrants have the greatest power, lands, and people; the
usurers the money; the farmers eggs, butter, corn, barley, oats, apples, pears,
etc.; while godly Christians must suffer, be persecuted, sit in dungeons, where
they can see neither sun nor moon, be thrust out into poverty, be banished,
plagued, etc. But things will be better one day; they cannot always remain as
now; let us have patience, and steadfastly remain by the pure doctrine, and not
fall away from it, notwithstanding all this misery.
LXXXI.
Our Lord God and the devil have two modes of
policy which agree not together, but are quite opposite the one to the other.
God at the first affrights, and afterwards lifts up and comforts again; so that
the flesh and the old man should be killed, and the spirit, or new man, live.
Whereas the devil makes, at first, people secure and bold, that they, void of
all fear, may commit sin and wickedness, and not only remain in sin, but take
delight and pleasure therein, and think they have done all well; but at last,
when Mr. Stretch-leg comes, then he affrights and scares them without measure,
so that they either die of great grief, or else, in the end, are left without
all comfort, and despair of God's grace and mercy.
LXXXII.
God only, and not wealth, maintains the world;
riches merely make people proud and lazy. At Venice, where the richest people
are, a horrible dearth fell among them in our time, so that they were driven to
call upon the Turks for help, who sent twenty-four galleys laden with corn; -
all of which, well nigh in port, sunk before their eyes. Great wealth and money
cannot still hunger, but rather occasion more dearth; for where rich people
are, there things are always dear. Moreover, money makes no man right merry,
but much rather pensive and full of sorrow; for riches, says Christ, are thorns
that prick people. Yet is the world so mad that it sets therein all its joys
and felicity.
LXXXIII.
There is no greater anger than when God is
silent, and talks not with us, but suffers us to go on in our sinful works, and
to do all things according to our own passions and pleasure; as it has been
with the Jews for the last fifteen hundred years.
Ah, God, punish, we pray thee, with pestilence
and famine, and with what evil and sickness may be else on earth; but be not
silent, Lord, towards us. God said to the Jews: "I have stretched forth my
hand, and have cried, come hither and hear," etc. "But ye said, We will not
hear."
Even so likewise do we now; we are weary of God's
Word; we will not have upright, good, and godly preachers and teachers that
threaten us, and bring God's Word pure and unfalsified before us, and condemn
false doctrine, and truly warn us. No, such cannot we endure; we will not hear
them, nay, we persecute and banish them; Therefore will God also punish us.
Thus it goes with wicked and lost children, that will not hearken to their
parents, nor be obedient unto them; they will afterwards be rejected of them
again.
LXXXIV.
Nothing displeases Almighty God more than when we
defend and clock our sins, and will not acknowledge that we have done wrong as
did Saul; for the sins that be not acknowledged, are against the first table of
the Ten Commandments. Saul sinned against the first table, David against the
second. Those are sinners against the second table, that look on the sermon of
Repentance, suffer themselves to be threatened and reproved, acknowledge their
sins, and better themselves. Those that sin against the first table, as
idolaters, unbelievers, condemners, and blasphemers of God, falsifiers of God's
Word, etc., attribute to themselves wisdom and power; they will be wise and
mighty, both which qualities God reserves to himself as peculiarly his own.
LXXXV.
`Tis inexpressible how ungodly and wicked the
world is. We may easily perceive it from this, that God has not only suffered
punishments to increase, but also has appointed so many executioners and
hangmen to punish his subjects; as evil spirits, tyrants, disobedient children,
knaves, and wicked women, wild beasts, vermin, sickness, etc.; yet all this can
make us neither bend nor bow.
Better it were that God should be angry with us,
than that we be angry with God, for he can soon be at an union with us again,
because he is merciful; but when we are angry with him, then the case is not to
be helped.
LXXXVI.
God could be exceedingly rich in temporal wealth,
if he so pleased, but he will not. If he would but come to the pope, the
emperor, a king, a prince, a bishop, a rich merchant, a citizen, a farmer, and
say: Unless you give me a hundred thousand crowns, you shall die on the spot;
every one would say: I will give it, with all my heart, if I may but live. But
now we are such unthankful slovens, that we give him not so much as a Deo
gratias, though we receive of him, to rich overflowing, such great
benefits, merely out of his goodness and mercy. Is not this a shame? Yet,
notwithstanding such unthankfulness, our Lord God and merciful Father suffers
not himself to be scared away, but continually shows us all manner of goodness.
If in his gifts and benefits he were more sparing and close-handed, we should
learn to be thankful. If he caused every human creature to be born with but one
leg or foot, and seven years afterwards gave him the other; or in the
fourteenth year gave one hand, and afterwards, in the twentieth year, the
other, then we should better acknowledge God's gifts and benefits, and value
them at a higher rate, and be thankful. He has given unto us a whole sea-full
of his Word, all manner of languages, and liberal arts. We buy at this time,
cheaply, all manner of good books. He gives us learned people, that teach well
and regularly, so that a youth, if he be not altogether a dunce, may learn more
in one year now, than formerly in many years. Arts are now so cheap, that
almost they go about begging for bread; woe be to us that we are so lazy,
improvident, negligent, and unthankful.
LXXXVII.
We are nothing worth with all our gifts and
qualities, how great soever they be, unless God continually hold his hand over
us: if he forsake us, then are our wisdom, art, sense, and understanding
futile. If he do not constantly aid us, then our highest knowledge and
experience in divinity, or what else we attain unto, will nothing serve; for
when the hour of temptation and trial comes, we shall be dispatched in a
moment, the devil, thought his craft and subtility, tearing away from us even
those texts in Holy Scripture wherewith we should comfort ourselves, and
setting before our eyes, instead, only sentences of fearful threatening.
Wherefore, let no man proudly boast and brag of
his own righteousness, wisdom, or other gifts and qualities, but humble himself
and pray with the holy apostles, and say: "Ah, Lord! strengthen and increase
the faith in us!
LXXXVIII.
The greater God's gifts and works, the less are
they regarded. The highest and most precious treasure we receive of God is,
that we can speak, hear, see, etc.; but how few acknowledge these as God's
special gifts, much less give God thanks for them. The world highly esteems
riches, honor, power, and other things of less value, which soon vanish away,
but a blind man, if in his right wits, would willingly exchange all these for
sight. The reason why the corporal gifts of God are so much undervalued is,
that they are so common, that God bestows them also upon brute beasts, which as
well as we, and better, hear and see. Nay, when Christ made the blind to see,
drove out devils, raised the dead, etc., he was upbraided by the ungodly
hypocrites, who gave themselves out for God's people, and was told that he was
a Samaritan, and had a devil. Ah! the world is the devil's, whether it goes or
stands still; how, then, can men acknowledge God's gifts and benefits? It is
with us as with young children, who regard not so much their daily bread, as an
apple, a pear, or other toys. Look at the cattle going into the fields to
pasture, and behold in them our preachers, our milk-bearers, butter-bearers,
cheese and wool bearers, which daily preach unto us faith in God, and that we
should trust in him, as in our loving Father, who cares for us, and will
maintain and nourish us.
LXXXIX.
No man can estimate the great charge God is at
only in maintaining birds and such creatures, comparatively nothing worth. I am
persuaded that it costs him, yearly, more to maintain only the sparrows, than
the revenue of the French king amounts to. What then, shall we say of all the
rest of his creatures?
XC.
God delights in our temptations, and yet hates
them; he delights in them when they drive us to prayer; he hates them when they
drive us to despair. The Psalm says: "An humble and contrite heart is an
acceptable sacrifice to God," etc. Therefore, when it goes well with you, sing
and praise God with a hymn: goes it evil, that is, does temptation come, then
pray: "For the Lord has pleasure in those that fear him;" and that which
follows is better: "and in them that hope in his goodness," for God helps the
lowly and humble, seeing he says: "Thinkest thou my hand is shortened that I
cannot help?" He that feels himself weak in faith, let him always have a desire
to be strong therein, for that is a nourishment which God relishes in us.
XCI.
God, in this world, has scarce the tenth part of
the people; the smallest number only will be saved. The world is exceeding
ungodly and wicked; who would believe our people should be so unthankful toward
the gospel?
XCII.
`Tis wonderful how God has put such excellent
physic in mere muck; we know by experience that swine's dung stints the blood;
horse's serves for the pleurisy; man's heals wounds and black blotches; asses'
is used for the bloody flux, and cow's with preserved roses, for epilepsy, or
for convulsions of children.
XCIII.
God seems as though he had dealt inconsiderately
in commanding the world to be governed by the Word of Truth, especially since
he has clothed and hooded it with a poor, weak, and condemned Word of the
Cross. For, the world will not have the truth, but lies: neither willingly do
they aught that is upright and good, unless compelled thereto by main force.
The world has a loathing of the cross, and will rather follow the pleasures of
the devil, and have pleasant days, than carry the cross of our blessed Saviour
Christ Jesus. He that best governs the world, as most worthy of it, is Satan,
by his lieutenant the pope; he can please the world well, and knows how to make
it give ear unto him; for his kingdom has a mighty show and repute, which is
acceptable to the world, and befits it. Like unto like.
XCIV.
Pythagoras, the heathen philosopher, said, that
the motion of the stars creates a very sweet harmony and celestial concord; but
that people, through continual custom, have become cloyed therewith. Even so it
is with us, we have surpassing fair creatures to our use, but by reason they
are too common, we regard them not.
XCV.
Scarcely a small proportion of the earth bears
corn, and yet we are all maintained and nourished. I verily believe that there
grow not as many sheaves of corn as there people in the world, and yet we are
all fed; yea, and there remains a good surplus of corn at the year's end. This
is a wonderful thing, which should make us see and perceive God's blessing.
XCVI.
The apparent cause why God passed so sharp a
sentence upon Adam, was, that he had eaten of the forbidden tree, and was
disobedient unto God, wherefore, for his sake, the earth was cursed, and
mankind made subject to all manner of miseries, fears, wants, sicknesses,
plagues, and death. The reason of the worldly-wise, regarding only the biting
of the apple, holds that for so slight and trivial a thing it was too cruel and
hard a proceeding upon poor Adam, and takes snuff in the nose, and says, or at
least thinks: O, is it then so heinous a matter and sin for one to eat an
apple? As people say of many sins that God expressly in his Word has forbidden,
such as drunkenness, etc.: What harm for one to be merry, and take a cup with
good fellows? - concluding, according to their blindness, that God is too sharp
and exacting.
Again, these worldlings are offended that Christ,
as they think, rejects, good, honest, and holy people; that he will not know
them, is harsh to them, sends them away from him, and calls them malefactors,
though some in his name have prophesied, cast out devils, done miracles, etc.,
while, on the other hand, he receives public sinners, as strumpets, knaves,
publicans, murderers, whom, if they hear his Word, and believe in him, he
forgives, be their sins ever so great and many, yea, makes them righteous and
holy, God's children, and heirs of everlasting life and salvation, out of mere
grace and mercy, without any deserts, good works, and worthiness of theirs.
This they conceive to be altogether unjust.
Who can be here an arbitrator, the two things
being as contrary to each other as fire and water. Herein man's wisdom, his
sense, reason, understanding, is made a fool. The Scripture says: "Except ye be
converted, and become like little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom
of God." They who would investigate these things with human wit and wisdom,
give themselves much futile labor and disquiet; they will never learn how God
is inclined towards them. In those, also, who so vainly trouble themselves,
whether they be predestinated or fore-chosen, there goes up a fire in the
heart, which they cannot quench; so that their consciences are never at peace,
but in the end they must despair. He, therefore, that will shun this enduring
evil must hold fast the Word, where he will find that our gracious God has laid
a sure and strong foundation, on which we may with certainty take footing -
namely, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom only we must enter into the kingdom
of heaven; for he, and no other, "is the way, the truth, and the life."
We can understand the heavy temptations of that
everlasting predestination, which terrifies many people, nowhere better than
from the wounds of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, of whom the Father commanded,
saying: "Him shall ye hear." But the wise of the world, the mighty, the
high-learned, and the great, by no means heed these things, so that God remains
unknown to them, notwithstanding they have much learning, and dispute and talk
much of God; for it is a short conclusion. Without Christ, God will not be
found, known, or comprehended.
If now thou wilt know, why so few are saved, and
so infinitely many damned, this is the cause: the world will not hear Christ;
they care nothing for him, yea, condemn that which the Father testifies of him:
"This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Whereas all people that seek and labor to come to
God, through any other means than only through Christ (as Jews, Turks, Papists,
false saints, heretics, etc.), walk in horrible darkness and error; and it
helps them nothing that they lead an honest, sober kind of life, affect great
devotion, suffer much, love and honor God, as they boast, etc. For seeing they
will not hear Christ, or believe in him (without whom no man knows God, no man
obtains forgiveness of sins, no man comes to the Father), they remain always in
doubt and unbelief, know not how they stand with God, and so at last must die,
and be lost in their sins. For, "He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the
Father," (1 John ii.), "He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but
the wrath of God remains upon him," (John iii.)
XCVII.
It is often asked: Why desperate wretches have
such good days, and live a long time in jollity and pleasure, to their heart's
desire, with health of body, fine children, etc., while God allows the godly to
remain in calamity, danger, anguish and want all their lives; yea, and some to
die also in misery, as St John the Baptist did, who was the greatest saint on
earth, to say nothing of our only Saviour Jesus Christ.
The prophets have all written much hereof, and
shown how the godly should overcome such doubts, and comfort themselves against
them. Jeremiah says, "Why goeth it so well with the ungodly, and wherefore are
all they happy that deal very treacherously?" But further on, "Thou sufferest
them to go at liberty like sheep that are to be slain, and thou preparest them
for the day of slaughter." Read also Psalms xxxvii., xlix., lxxiii.
God is not therefore angry with his children,
though he scourge and punish them; but he is angry with the ungodly that do not
acknowledge Christ to be the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, but
blaspheme and condemn the Word; such are to expect no grace and help of him.
And, indeed, he does not himself scourge and beat his small and poor flock that
depend on Christ; but suffers them to be chastened and beaten, when they become
ever secure and unthankful unto him for his unspeakable graces and benefits
shown unto them in Christ, and are disobedient to his Word; then permits he
that the devil bruise our heels, and send pestilence and other plagues unto us;
and that tyrants persecute us, and this for our good, that thereby we may be
moved, and in a manner forced to turn ourselves unto him, to call upon him, to
seek help and comfort from him, through Christ.
XCVIII.
"God is a God of the living, and not of the
dead." This text shows the resurrection; for if there were no hope of the
resurrection, or of another and better world, after this short and miserable
life, wherefore should God offer himself to be our God, and say he will give us
all that is necessary and healthful for us, and, in the end, deliver us out of
all trouble, both temporal and spiritual? To what purpose should we hear his
Word, and believe in him? What were we the better when we cry and sigh to him
in our anguish and need, that we wait with patience upon his comfort and
salvation, upon his grace and benefits, shown in Christ? Why praise and thank
him for them? Why be daily in danger, and suffer ourselves to be persecuted and
slain for the sake of Christ's Word?
Forasmuch as the everlasting, merciful God,
through his Word and Sacraments, talks, and deals with us, all other creatures
excluded, not of temporal things which pertain to this vanishing life, and
which in the beginning he provided richly for us, but as to where we shall go
when we depart hence, and gives unto us his Son for a Saviour, delivering us
from sin and death, and purchasing for us everlasting righteousness, life, and
salvation, therefore it is most certain, that we do not die away like the
beasts that have no understanding; but so many of us as sleep in Christ, shall
through him be raised again to life everlasting at the last day, and the
ungodly to everlasting destruction. (John, v., Dan. xii.)
XCIX.
The most acceptable service we can do and show
unto God, and which alone he desires of us, is, that he be praised of us; but
he is not praised, unless he be first loved; he is not loved, unless he be
first bountiful and does well; he does well when he is gracious; gracious he is
when he forgives sins. Now who are those that love him? They are that small
flock of the faithful, who acknowledge such graces, and know that through
Christ they have forgiveness of their sins. But the children of this world do
not trouble themselves herewith; they serve their idol, that wicked and cursed
Mammon: in the end he will reward them.
C.
Our loving Lord God wills that we eat, drink, and
be merry, making use of his creatures, for therefore he created them. He will
not that we complain, as if he had not given sufficient, or that he could not
maintain our poor carcasses; he asks only that we acknowledge him for our God,
and thank him for his gifts.
CI.
He that has not God, let him have else what he
will, is more miserable than Lazarus, who lay at the rich man's gate, and was
starved to death. It will go with such, as it went with the glutton, that they
must everlastingly hunger and want, and shall not have in their power so much
as one drop of water.
CII.
Of Abraham came Isaac and Ishmael; of the
patriarchs and holy fathers, came the Jews that crucified Christ; of the
apostles came Jusas the traitor; of the city Alexandria (where a fair,
illustrious, and famous school was, and whence proceeded many upright and godly
learned men) came Arius and Origen; of the Roman church, that yielded many holy
martyrs, came the blasphemous Antichrist, the pope of Rome; of the holy men in
Arabia, came Mohammed; of Constantinople, where many excellent emperors were,
comes the Turk; of married women come adulteresses; of virgins, strumpets; of
brethren, sons, and friends, come the cruelest enemies; of angels come devils;
of kings come tyrants; of the gospel and godly truth come horrible lies; of the
true church come heretics; of Luther come fanatics, rebels, and enthusiasts.
What wonder is it then that evil is among us, comes from us, and goes out of
us; they must, indeed, be very evil things that cannot stay by such goodness;
and they must also be very good, that can endure such evil things.
CIII.
Though by reason of original sin many wild beasts
hurt mankind, as lions, wolves, bears, snakes, adders, etc., yet the merciful
God has in such manner mitigated our well-deserved punishments, that there are
many more beasts that serve us for our good and profit, than of those which do
us hurt: many more sheep than wolves, oxen than lions, cows than bears, deer
than foxes, lobsters than scorpions, ducks, geese, and hens, than ravens and
kites, etc.: in all creatures more good than evil, more benefits than hurts and
hindrances.
CIV.
God will have his servants to be repenting
sinners, standing in fear of his anger, of the devil, death and hell, and
believing in Christ. David says, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a
broken heart, and helpeth them that be of an humble spirit." And Isaiah "Where
shall my Spirit rest, and where shall I dwell? By them that are of humble
spirit, and that stand in fear of my Word." So with the poor sinner on the
cross. So with St Peter, when he had denied Christ; with Mary Magdalene; with
Paul the persecutor, etc. All these were sorrowful for their sins, and such
shall have forgiveness of their sins, and be God's servants.
The great prelates, the puffed up saints, the
rich usurers, the ox drovers that seek unconscionable gain, etc., these are not
God's servants, neither were it good they should be; for then no poor people
could have access to God for them; neither were it for God's honor that such
should be his servants, for they would ascribe the honor and praise to
themselves.
In the Old Testament, all the first-born were
consecrated to God, both of mankind and of beasts. The first-born son had an
advantage over his brethren; he was their Lord, as the chief in offerings and
riches, that is, in spiritual and temporal government; for he had a right to
the priesthood and dominion, etc. But there are many examples in Holy
Scriptures, where God rejected the first-born, and chose the younger brethren,
as Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Reuben, etc., who were first-born; from them God took
their right, and gave it to their younger brethren, as to Abel, Isaac, Jacob,
Judah, David, etc. And for this cause: That they were haughty, proud, and
presuming on their first-birth, and despised their brethren, that were more
goodly and godly than they; this God could not endure, and therefore they were
bereaved of their honors, so that they could not boast themselves of their
prior birth, although they were highly esteemed in the world, and were
possessed of lands and people.
CV.
The Scriptures show two manner of sacrifices
acceptable to God. The first is called a sacrifice of thanks or praise, and is
when we teach and preach God's Word purely, when we hear and receive it with
faith, when we acknowledge it, and do everything that tends to the spreading of
it abroad, and thank God from our hearts for the unspeakable benefits which
through it are laid before us, and bestowed upon us in Christ, when we praise
and glorify him, etc. "Offer unto God thanksgiving." "He that offereth thanks
praiseth me." "Thank the Lord, for he is gracious, because his mercy endureth
for ever." "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise his
holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." -
Psalms.
Secondly, when a sorrowful and troubled heart in
all manner of temptations has his refuge in God, calls upon him in a true and
upright faith, seeks help of him, and waits patiently upon him. Hereof the
Psalms, "In my trouble I called upon the Lord, and he heard me at large." "The
Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart, and will save such as be
of an humble spirit." "The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and
contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise." And again: "Call upon me in the
time of need, so will I deliver thee, and thou shalt praise me."
CVI.
If Adam had remained in his innocence, and
had not transgressed God's command, yet had begotten children, he should not
have lived and remained continually in that state in Paradise, but would have
been taken into the everlasting glory of heaven, not through death, but through
being translated into another life.
CVII.
God scorns and mocks the devil, in setting
under his very nose a poor, weak, human creature, mere dust and ashes, yet
endowed with the first-fruits of the Spirit, against whom the devil can do
nothing, though he is so proud, subtile, and powerful a spirit. We read in
histories that a powerful king of Persia, besieging the city of Edessa, the
bishop, seeing that all human aid was ineffectual, and that the city could not
of itself hold out, ascending to the ramparts and prayed to God, making, at the
same time, the sign of the cross, whereupon there was a wonderful host sent
from God of great flies and gnats, which filled the horses eyes, and dispersed
the whole army. Even so God takes pleasure to triumph and overcome, not through
power, but by weakness.
CVIII.
False teachers and sectaries are punishments
for evil times, God's greatest anger and displeasure; while godly teachers are
glorious witnesses, God's graces and mercies. Hence St Paul names apostles,
evangelists, prophets, shepherds, teachers, etc., gifts and presents of our
Saviour Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father. And the prophet Micah
compares teachers of the gospel to a fruitful rain.
CIX.
Melancthon asked Luther if this word, hardened,
"hardeneth whom he will," were to be understood directly as it sounded, or in a
figurative sense? Luther answered: We must understand it specially and not
operatively: for God works no evil. Through his almighty power he works all in
all; and as he finds a man, so he works in him, as he did in Pharaoh, who was
evil by nature, which was not God's, but his own fault; he continually went on
in his wickedness, doing evil; he was hardened, because God with his spirit and
grace hindered not his ungodly proceedings, but suffered him to go on, and to
have his way. Why God did not hinder or restrain him, we ought not to
inquire.
CX.
God styles himself, in all the Holy Scriptures, a
God of life, of peace, of comfort, and joy, for the sake of Christ. I hate
myself, that I cannot believe it so constantly and surely as I should; but no
human creature can rightly know how mercifully God is inclined toward those
that steadfastly believe in Christ.
CXI.
The second Psalm is one of the best Psalms. I
love that Psalm with my heart. It strikes and flashes valiantly amongst kings,
princes, counsellors, judges, etc. If what this Psalm says be true, then are
the allegations and aims of the papists stark lies and folly. If I were as our
Lord God, and had committed the government to my son, as he to his Son, and
these vile people were as disobedient as they now be, I would knock the world
in pieces.
CXII.
If a man serve not God only, then surely he
serves the devil; because no man can serve God, unless he have his Word and
command. Therefore, if his Word and command be not in thy heart, thou servest
not God, but thine own will; for that is upright serving of God, when a man
does that which in his Word God has commanded to be done, every one in his
vocation, not that which he thinks good of his own judgment.
CXIII.
It troubles the hearts of people not a little,
that God seems as though he were mutable or fickle-minded; for he gave to Adam
the promises and ceremonies, which afterwards he altered with the rainbow and
the ark of Noah. He gave to Abraham the circumcision, to Moses he gave
miraculous signs, to his people, the law. But to Christ, and through Christ, he
gave the Gospel; which amounts to the abolition of all the former. Hence the
Turks take advantage of these proceedings of God, saying: The laws of the
Christians may be established, and endure for a time, but at last they will be
altered.
CXIV.
I was once sharply reprimanded by a popish
priest, because, with such passion and vehemence, I reproved the people. I
answered him: Our Lord God must first send a sharp, pouring shower, with
thunder and lightning, and afterwards cause it mildly to rain, as then it wets
finely through. I can easily cut a willow or a hazel wand with my trencher
knife, but for a hard oak, a man must use the axe; and little enough, to fell
and cleave it.
CXV.
Plato, the heathen, said of God: God is nothing
and yet everything; him followed Eck and the sophists, who understood nothing
thereof, as their words show. But we must understand and spake of it in this
manner: God is incomprehendible and invisible; that, therefore, which may be
seen and comprehended, is not God. And thus, in another manner, God is visible
and invisible: visible in his Word and works; and where his Word and works are
not, there a man should not desire to have him; or he will, instead of God,
take hold of the devil. Let us not flutter too high, but remain by the manger
and the swaddling clothes of Christ, "in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily." There a man cannot fail of God, but finds him most certainly.
Human comfort and divine comfort are of different natures: human comfort
consists in external, visible help, which a man may see, hold, and feel; divine
comfort only in words and promises, where there is neither seeing, hearing, nor
feeling.
CXVI.
When we see no way or means, by advice or aid,
through which we may be helped in our miseries, we at once conclude, according
to our human reason: now our condition is desperate; but when we believe
trustingly in God, our deliverance begins. The physician says: Where philosophy
ends, physic begins; so we say: Where human help is at an end, God's help
begins, or faith in God's Word. Trials and temptations appear before
deliverance, after deliverance comes joy. To be suppressed and troubled, is to
arise, to grow and to increase.
CXVII.
The devil, too, has his amusement and pleasure,
which consists in suppressing God's work, and tormenting those that love God's
Word, and hold fast thereby; so the true Christians, being God's kingdom, must
be tormented and oppressed.
A true Christian must have evil days, and suffer
much; our Adam's flesh and blood must have good and easy days, and suffer
nothing. How may these agree together? Our flesh is given over to death and
hell: if our flesh is to be delivered from death, hell and the devil, it must
keep and hold to God's commandments - i.e., must believe in Christ Jesus, that
he is the Son of God and our Redeemer, and must cleave fast to his Word,
believing that he will not suffer us to be plagued everlastingly, but will
deliver and remove us out of this life into life eternal; giving us at the same
time, patience under the cross, and to bear with the weakness of another, who
is also under the cross, and holds with Christ.
Therefore, he that will boast himself to be
Christ's disciple, a true Christian, and saved, must not expect good days; but
all his faith, hope, and love must be directed to God, and to his neighbor,
that so his whole life be nothing else than the cross, persecution, adversity,
and tribulation.
CXVIII.
What is it we poor wretched people aim at? We who
cannot, as yet, comprehend with our faith the merest sparks of God's promises,
the bare glimmering of his commandments and works, - both of which,
notwithstanding he himself has confirmed with words and miracles, - weak,
impure, corrupt as we are, - presumptuously seek to understand the
incomprehensible light of God's wonders.
We must know that he dwells in a light to which
human creatures cannot come, and yet we go on, and essay to reach it. We know
it. We know that his judgments are incomprehensive, and his ways past finding
out, (Rom. xi.,) yet we undertake to find them out. We look, with blind eyes
like a mole, on the majesty of God, and after that light which is shown neither
in words nor miracles, but is only signified; out of curiosity and willfulness
we would behold the highest and greatest light of the celestial sun ere we see
the morning star. Let the morning star, as St Peter says, go first up in our
hearts, and we shall then see the sun in his noon-tide splendor.
True, we must teach, as we may, of God's
incomprehensible and unsearchable will; but to aim at its perfect comprehension
is dangerous work, wherein we stumble, fall, and break our necks. I bridle
myself with these words of our Saviour Christ to St peter: "Follow thou me:
what is it to thee?" etc., for Peter busied himself also about God's works;
namely, how he would do with another, how he would do with John? And as he
answered Philip, that said, "Show us the Father" - "What," said Christ;
"believest thou not that the Father is in me, and I in the Father? He that
seeth me, seeth the Father also," etc. For Philip would also willingly have
seen the majesty and fellowship of the Father. Solomon, the wise king, says:
"What is too high for thee, thereafter inquire thou not." And even did we know
all the secret judgments of God, what good and profit would it bring unto us,
more than God's promises and commandments?
Let us abstain from such cogitations, seeing we
know for certain that they are incomprehensible. Let us not permit ourselves to
be so plagued by the devil with that which is impossible. A man might as well
busy himself how the kingdom of the earth shall endure upon the waters, and go
not down beneath them. Above all things, let us exercise the faith of God's
promises, and the works of his commandments; when we have done this, we may
well consider whether it is expedient to trouble oneself about impossible
things, though it is a very difficult thing to expel such thoughts, so fiercely
drives the devil. A man must as vehemently strive against such cogitations as
against unbelief, despair, heresies, and such like temptations. For most of us
are deceived herewith, not believing they proceed from the devil, who yet
himself fell through those very cogitations, assuming to be equal with the Most
Highest, and to know all that God knows, and scorning to know what he ought to
know, and what was needful for him.
CXIX.
High mysteries in the Scriptures being hard to be
understood, confound unlearned and light spirits so as to produce many errors
and heresies, to their own and others condemnation. `Twis therefore Moses
described the creation so briefly, whereas he spends a whole chapter in
narrating the purchase of the field and cave over against Hebron, that Abraham
bought of Ephron the Hittite, for a sepulchre to bury Sara in. He describes,
likewise, through many chapters, divers sorts of sacrifices, and other customs
and ceremonies, for he well knew that such like produce no heresies. Many
things were written and described ere Moses was born. Doubtless, Adam briefly
noted the history of the creation, of his fall, of the promised seed, etc. The
other patriarchs afterwards, no doubt, each set down what was done in his time,
especially Noah. Afterwards Moses, as I conceive, took and brought all into a
right method and order, diminishing therefrom, and adding thereunto, such
things as God commanded: as, especially, touching the seed that should crush
the serpent's head, the history of the creation, etc.; all which, doubtless, he
had out of the sermons of the patriarchs, that always one inherited from
another. For I verily believe, that the sermon of the woman's seed promised to
Adam and Eve, after which they had so hearty a longing and yearning, was
preached more powerfully before the deluge, than now in these dangerous times
the sermons of Christ are preached with us.
CXX.
I would give a world to have the acts and legends
of the patriarchs who lived before the deluge; for therein a man might see how
they lived, preached, and what they suffered. But it pleased our Lord God to
overwhelm all their acts and legends in the deluge, because he knew that those
which should come after, would not regard, much less understand them; therefore
God would keep and preserve them until they met again together in the life to
come. But then, I am sure, the loving patriarchs who lived after the deluge,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.; the prophets, the apostles, their posterity, and
other holy people, whom in this life the devil would not leave untempted, will
yield unto the patriarchs, that lived before the deluge, and give to them
pre-eminence in divine and spiritual honor, saying: Ye loving and most
venerable patriarchs! I preached but a few years, spreading God's Word abroad,
and therefore suffered the cross; but what is that in comparison with the
great, tedious, intolerable labor and pains, anguish, torments, and plagues,
which ye, holy fathers, endured before the deluge, some of you, seven hundred,
some eight hundred years, some longer, of the devil and the wicked world.
CXXI.
As lately I lay very sick, so sick that I thought
I should have left this world, many cogitations and musings had I in my
weakness. Ah! thought I, what may eternity be? What joys may it have? However,
I know for certain, that this eternity is ours; through Christ it is given and
prepared for us, if we can but believe. There it shall be opened and revealed;
here we shall not know when a second creation of the world will be, seeing we
understand not the first. If I had been with God almighty before he created the
world, I could not have advised him how out of nothing to make this globe, the
firmament, and that glorious sun, which in its swift course gives light to the
whole earth; how, in such manner, to create man and woman, etc., all which he
did for us, without our counsel. Therefore ought we justly to give him the
honor, and leave to his divine power and goodness the new creation of the life
to come, and not presume to speculate thereon.
CXXII.
I hold that the name Paradise applies to the
whole world. Moses describes more particularly what fell within Adam's sight
before his fall, - a sweet and pleasant place, water by four rivers. After he
had sinned, he directed his steps towards Syria, and the earth lost its
fertility. Samaria and Judaea were once fruitful lands, worthy to be Paradise,
but they are now arid sands, for God has cursed them.
Even so, in our time, has God cursed fruitful
lands, and caused them to be barren and unfruitful by reason of our sins; for
where God gives not his blessing, there grows nothing that is good and
profitable, but where he blesses, there all things grow plentifully, and are
fruitful.
CXXIII.
Dr. Jonas, inviting Luther to dinner, caused a
bunch of ripe cherries to be hung over the table where they dined, in
remembrance of the creation, and as a suggestion to his guests to praise God
for creating such fruits. But Luther said: Why not rather remember this in
one's children, that are the fruit of one's body? For these are far more
excelling creatures of God than all the fruits of trees. In them we see God's
power, wisdom and art, who made them all out of nothing, gave them life and
limbs, exquisitely constructed, and will maintain and preserve them. Yet how
little do we regard this. When people have children, all the effect is to make
them grasping - raking together all they an to leave behind them. They do not
know, that before a child comes into the world, it has its lot assigned
already, and that it is ordained and determined what and how much it shall
have. In the married state we find that the conception of children depends not
on our will and pleasure; we never know whether we will be fruitful or no, or
whether God will give us a son or a daughter. All this goes on without our
counsel. My father and mother did not imagine they should have brought a
spiritual overseer into the world. `Tis God's work only, and this we cannot
enter into. I believe that, in the life to come, we shall have nothing to do,
but to meditate on and marvel at our Creator and his creatures.
CXXIV.
A comet is a star that runs, not being fixed like
a planet, but a bastard among planets. It is a haughty and proud star,
engrossing the whole element, and carrying itself as if it were there alone.
`Tis of the nature of heretics who also will be singular and alone, bragging
and boasting above others and thinking they are the only people endued with
understanding.
CXXV.
Whereto serve or profit such superfluity, such
show, such ostentation, such extraordinary luxurious kind of life as is now
come upon us. If Adam were to return to earth, and see our mode of living, our
food, drink and dress, how would he marvel. He would say: Surely, this is not
the world I was in; it was, doubtless, another Adam than I, who appeared among
men heretofore. For Adam drank water, ate fruit from the trees, and if he had
any house at all, `twas a hut, supported by four wooden forks; he had no knife,
or iron; and he wore simply a coat of s kin. Now we spend immense sums in
eating and drinking; now we raise sumptuous palaces, and decorate them with a
luxury beyond all comparison. The ancient Israelites lived in great moderation
and quiet; Boaz says: "Dip thy bread in vinegar, and refresh thyself
therewith." Judaea was full of people, as we read in the book of Joshua; and a
great multitude of people gives a lesson to live sparingly.
CXXVI.
Adam, our father, was, doubtless, a most
miserable, plagued man. `Twas a mighty solitariness for him to be alone in so
wide and vast a world; but when he, with Eve, his only companion and loving
consort, obtained Cain their son, then there was great joy; and so, when Abel
was born: but soon after followed great trouble, misery, and sorrow of heart,
when one brother slew another, and Adam thereby lost one son, and the other was
banished and proscribed from his sight. This surely was a great cross and
sorrow, so that the murder caused him more grief than his own fall; but he,
with his loving Eve, were reduced again to a solitary kind of life. Afterwards,
when he was one hundred and thirty years old, he had Seth. Miserable and
lamentable was his fall, for during nine hundred years he saw God's anger in
the death of every human creature. Ah! no human creature can conceive his
perplexities: our sufferings, in comparison with his, are altogether children's
toys; but he was afterwards comforted and refreshed again with the promise,
through faith, of the woman's seed.
CXXVII.
All wild beasts are beasts of the law, for they
live in fear and quaking; they have all swarthy and black flesh, by reason of
their fear, but tame beasts have white flesh, for they are beasts of grace;
they live securely with mankind.
CXXVIII.
After Adam had lost the righteousness in which
God had created him, he was, without doubt, much decayed in bodily strength, by
reason of his anguish and sorrow of heart. I believe that before the fall he
could have seen objects a hundred miles off better than we can see them at half
a mile, and so in proportion with all the other senses. No doubt, after the
fall, he said: "Ah, God! what has befallen me? I am both blind and deaf." It
was a horrible fall; for, before, all creatures were obedient unto him, so that
he could play even with the serpent.
CXXIX.
Twenty years is but a short time, yet in that
short time the world were empty, if there was no marrying and production of
children. God assembles unto himself a Christian Church out of little children.
For I believe, when a little child dies of one years old, that always one, yea,
two thousand die with it, of that age or younger; but when I, Luther, die, that
am sixty-three, I believe that not three-score, or one hundred at the most,
will die with me of that age, or older; for people now grow not old; not many
people live to my years. Mankind is nothing else but a sheep-shambles, where we
are slain and slaughtered by the devil. How many sorts of deaths are in our
bodies? Nothing is therein but death.
CXXX.
It is in the father's power to disinherit a
disobedient child; God commanded, by Moses, that disobedient children should be
stoned to death, so that a father may clearly disinherit a son, yet with this
proviso, that, upon bettering and amendment, he reinstate him.
CXXXI.
What need had our early ancestors of other food
than fruits and herbs, seeing these tasted so well and gave such strength? The
pomegranates and oranges, without doubt yielded such a sweet and pleasant
smell, that one might have been satisfied with the scent thereof; and I am sure
Adam, before his fall, never wanted to eat a partridge; but the deluge spoiled
all. It follows not, that because God created all things, we must eat of all
things. Fruits were created chiefly as food for people and for beasts; the
latter were created to the end we should laud and praise God. Whereunto serve
the stars, but only to praise their Creator? Whereunto serve the raven and
crows, but to call upon the Lord who nourishes them.
CXXXII.
There's no doubt that all created things have
degenerated by reason of original sin. The serpent was at first a lofty, noble
animal, eating without fear from Eve's hand, but after it was cursed, it lost
its feet, and was fain to crawl and eat on the ground. It was precisely because
the serpent, at that time, was the most beautiful of creatures, that Satan
selected it for his work, for the devil likes beauty, knowing that beauty
attracts men unto evil. A fool serves not as a provocative to heresy, nor a
deformed maid-servant to libertinism, nor water to drunkenness, nor rags to
vanity. Consider the bodies of children, how much sweeter and purer and more
beautiful they are than those of grown persons; `tis because childhood
approaches nearer to the state of innocence wherein Adam lived before his fall.
In our sad condition, our only consolation is the expectation of another life.
Here below all is incomprehensible.
CXXXIII.
Dr. Luther, holding a rose in his hand, said:
`Tis a magnificent work of God: could a man make but one such rose as this, he
would be thought worthy of all honor, but the gifts of God lose their value in
our eyes, from their very infinity. How wonderful is the resemblance between
children and their parents. A man shall have a half-dozen sons, all like him as
so many peas are like another, and these sons again their sons, with equal
exactness of resemblance, and so it goes on. The heathen noticed these
likenesses. Dido says to Aeneas:
"Si mihi parvulus Aeneas luderet in aula, Qui te
tantum ore referret."
`Twas a form of malediction among the Greeks, for
a man to wish that his enemy's son might be unlike him in face.
CXXXIV.
`Tis wonderful how completely the earth is
fertilized by currents of water running in all directions and constantly
replenished by snow, rain, and dew.
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